Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication mediation system, a communication mediation device, a communication mediation method, and a communication mediation program. More specifically, the invention relates to a technique that securely introduces the communication mediation device with less time and labor.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, an application service (hereinafter referred to as “App service”) in which, for example, a server of an application service provider (ASP) distributes news to devices such as personal computers connected to a local area network (LAN) via the Internet, has become widespread.
However, in a case where a LAN is connected to the Internet, a firewall is typically used so as to eliminate an unauthorized access due to a reason of network security. In particular, access from the side of the Internet to the side of the LAN is strictly restricted. Therefore, access of a server that provides the App service (hereinafter referred to as “App server”) to devices on the side of the LAN is also restricted.
In order to solve the above problem, for example, a technique illustrated in FIG. 14 has been proposed (for example, refer to JP 2014-032597 A and JP 2014-215846 A). That is, a gateway 1450 connected to a LAN 1460 and a continuous connection server 1410 connected to the Internet 1430 are continuously connected to each other.
When an App server 1420 requests the continuous connection server 1410 to connect the App server 1420 to a device that has been connected to the LAN 1460, for example, a multi-function peripheral (MFP) 1470, the continuous connection server 1410 requests the gateway 1450 to mediate communication between the App server 1420 and the MFP 1470.
The gateway 1450 that has received the request, establishes a tunneling route between the App server 1420 and the MFP 1470. Then, the App server 1420 provides the MFP 1470 with the App service via the tunneling route.
As described above, the App server 1420 avoids an access restriction due to the firewall 1440 so as to provide the device on the side of the LAN with the App service.
In the related art, when the above gateway 1450 is connected to the LAN 1460, a customer management server 1400 that has been connected to the Internet 1430, is used so as to perform the following setup operation.
First, an administrator of the customer management server 1400 registers a tenant ID for specifying a user of the gateway 1450, in the customer management server 1400 and also notifies the user of the tenant ID. The user that has been notified transmits the tenant ID to the customer management server 1400 so as to acquire an activation key valid only one time. The activation key is information for proving that the tenant ID has been given based on a legal contract.
Furthermore, when the user connects the gateway 1450 to the LAN 1460 and sets the tenant ID and the activation key, the gateway 1450 transmits the tenant ID and the activation key to the customer management server 1400. When determining that the tenant ID is legal based on a combination of the tenant ID and the activation key, the customer management server 1400 returns authentication information (for example, ID and password) to the gateway 1450. The authentication information is used so that the gateway 1450 is continuously connected to the continuous connection server 1410.
However, the tenant ID and the activation key are sent to the user by an electronic mail or a mail. Therefore, the tenant ID and the activation key may be leaked out to a third party. The tenant ID and the activation key may be used only between the gateway 1450 and the customer management server 1400, and are not necessarily well known to the user.
Upon a setup of an individual gateway 1450, if there is no need for setting the tenant ID and the activation key, time and labor necessary for the setup can be omitted.